Buckcherry Guitarist Keith Nelson
by Deb Rao
Staff Writer
Hot off the heels of a very successful trek at Crue Fest One, Buckcherry and Papa Roach are currently on the road in support of their latest releases. Buckcherry has unleased Black Butterfly on Eleven Seven Music and Papa Roach’s latest release is entitled Metamorphosis.
Buckcherry’s recent singles “Too Drunk To F***”, “Rescue Me” and “Don’t Go Away” can be heard in heavy rotation on radio stations across the country. The hard driving core of Buckcherry featuring the bluesy guitar work of guitarist Keith Nelson along with the the funky vocals of Josh Todd, have made Buckcherry one of the most popular acts in music today. The band is no stranger to the Boston music scene. On March 12, Buckcherry along with Papa Roach and special guest Rev Theory, and the first band that Motley Crue bassist NIKKI SIXX has signed to his label Eleven Seven Music Charm City Devils return to the area and will be performing a special show in Worcester, Mass. at the Worcester Palladium at 8 P.M. On March 12. Buckcherry, Papa Roach and Rev Theory will also be performing at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Ct on March 16. For info on tour dates go to
Buckcherry on MySpace.
Hardrock Haven recently spoke to Buckcherry Guitarist Keith Nelson to discuss the making of the latest Buckcherry release Black Butterfly, Crue Fest, and their recent tour of Japan.
HRH: Buckcherry recently just returned to the U.S. from touring Japan. Would you like to share some of the Japan Tour highlights with us?
Nelson: It was awesome. We did a few shows with Motley Crue over there. We did a bunch of shows on our own. We had AIRBOURNE supporting us. It was a lot of fun.
HRH: Also, Buckcherry spent the summer touring with Crüe Fest. What was it like spending the summer performing your music to the mass of people that turned out for this mega event?
Nelson: It was really a great way to spend the summer. The most memorable moment was probably watching Tommy Lee smash a Birthday cake in my drummer’s face onstage on his birthday!
HRH: Did you feel any pressure going into the studio writing and recording your new album Black Butterfly due to the mega success of 15?
Nelson: Not really pressure. I think the only pressure was to not make the same record over and over again. I think we achieved that goal. More than about half of the records that were sold on that record were actually sold after we got off the road and we were writing and when “Sorry” actually became a radio hit. We were almost at about a million records and then we sold another four or five hundred thousand when we were home writing, which was really cool. We put more pressure on ourselves than more anybody from the outside could put on us. We want to make great records. We wanted to be proud of everything we put out there. Anything worth doing is making sure it is a quality effort.
HRH: Buckcherry spent a lot of time on the road touring in support of 15. In retrospect, do you feel that the constant touring make you stronger as a band and helped you write Black Butterfly?
Nelson: It definitely made the band stronger both as musicians playing together and the personalities involved. It’s a great group of guys. The commodity is awesome. It is everything that Josh and I thought that Buckcherry should be but never quite got to on the first go around. The fact that we can go out and play 300 shows over two years just speaks to the character of all the guys involved.
HRH: Does the album title Black Butterfly have any special meaning to you, and what does the album cover and artwork denote to you?
Nelson: Well, we were coming up with titles when we were actually done and we had written a song called “Black Butterfly.” Somehow that song did not make the final voting for the record. But it was a great song. It was kind of stuck in my head. The image of the Black Butterfly I thought was just very striking. So at one point when we were talking about ideas for the title I threw that out there and everyone seemed to like it, even though the song is not on the record. I should note that “House Of The Holy” by LED ZEPPELIN is not on the record House Of The Holy. So we decided it was a perfect excuse to do it.
Following is Nelson’s breakdown of Black Butterfly:
Rescue Me – “It was one of the first rock songs that we come up with on the record. I think some of the lyrics were also inspired by the Dave Pelzer book that we will probably talk about later with ‘The Child Called “It”‘. It is just a good rock and roll song, I think a great way to open the record.”
Tired Of You – “Stevie and I got together. Stevie had a riff and we took the riff and kind of switched it around a little bit. Just kind of made it a good stomping rock and roll song.”
Too Drunk – “Too Drunk” is the party anthem. It is an unfortunate tale of over-indulging and not being able to perform. It is just a fun song. I am really surprised, after the leak of that song, the people love that song and it goes over great live. They love that song and it is a lot of fun.”
Dreams – “‘Dreams’ started off with this music and Jimmy had this other song that he was working on and we just put our two ideas together musically. That song really came together nice. My favorite part of this song is the bridge section with the harmony guitar solos, and the melody that Josh is singing. It has a nice song little bridge right there.”
Talk To Me – “‘Talk To Me’ is probably one of the last songs that we finished. That song started off as a song called ‘Lies’. We wrote and made the demo of it. Something about it just wasn’t working. We salvaged a couple of riffs out of it and went over to Marti Frederiksen’s house. He and Josh and I kind of took the song apart and put it back together and kind of ended up with that right there.”
A Child Called “It” – “This song is based on the book by Dave Pelzer. Josh read the book and had called me up one night with the idea for the chorus and we put that song together. I actually ended up reading this really heavy story of child abuse in the State of California. This band is non-political. We haven’t really dealt with heavy topics like that. Josh really came up with a really cool way of telling the story, in the first person. I think it is very compelling. I am really proud of the song.”
Don’t Go Away – “Is a ballad, I don’t know if it is the ballad on the record. That song came together quite naturally. I really wanted the verse to be more of a droning kind of thing. I just heard that music for the chorus and took it over to Josh. He came up with those lyrics and we put the rest of the song around it.”
Fallout – “I think if was the first song that we actually wrote for the record. I had the riff and the music and I just started playing it and Josh started singing and the band started playing and it was written in five minutes.”
Rose – “‘Rose’ took on my different lives in this writing process. One of the things that is special about Black Butterfly is I think, we would always write songs before and we would finish them, and if the song didn’t really get it, we would just write another song. This is the first time where we wrote a song and one of the parts of a song was really great and we weren’t knocked out by the rest of it. We would take that part and really stay at working on that song. We had that chorus for ‘Rose’ and we played it in three different keys with three different song ideas around it. It went from sounding very, very country to sounding the way it sounds now. It was almost too country on one of the versus that we had written. I just think that style of music and flavor of rock and roll; I should say is something that is definitely much of a part of us as something like,’ Fallout’ or ‘Imminent Bailout’ or ‘Crazy Bitch’. That is all in there. We have many influences. I am really glad we have a song like that to showcase that side of us.”
All Of Me – “Is an acoustic song. I kind of came up with this guitar progression and a little bit of that melody that you hear with the drums. I went over to Josh’s house and said I got this idea. I just kind of sang him the first little bit of it and played him the guitar part and recorded on his cassette recorder and I left. I came into rehearsal the next day and he had written all these lyrics and a great melody. It just kind of came together very quickly. That song went through a number of changes instrumentally and getting to our final version of it. We did a version that was full on drums and electric guitars. There is a version that is slower, that sounds like an Otis Redding song. But this is the version that we ended up with. It was a lot of fun to record. At one point you can hear, we are all standing by the microphone with Marti and we are singing the back-up vocals and doing the handclaps together. It is very much a live kind of thing.”
Imminent Bailout -“I just wanted to write a song that keeps slipping through your head. Listening to that song, kind of gives me the same feeling that I had listening to Appetite For Destruction. It sounds reckless and dangerous. I think that is an important element. That is so much of what our live shows are about. I wanted to get that across on the record. “
Cream – ” That started out as two different songs. It really took a lot of work. That song was left for dead so many times in the writing process. We just kept coming back to it. Marti was really instrumental in helping us getting the arrangement for that song together. Once it all kind of came together and clicked, I think it is one of our favorite songs of the guys in the band. I thought it was a perfect song to end the record with.”
BUCKCHERRY TOUR DATES
Palladium Worcester, Massachusetts
Mar 14 2009 8:00P
Sound Academy Toronto, Ontario
Mar 16 2009 8:00P
Mogehan Sun Uncasville, Connecticut
Mar 17 2009 8:00P
Starland Ballroom Sayreville, New Jersey
Mar 19 2009 8:00P
Susquehanna Bank Center Camden, New Jersey
Mar 21 2009 8:00P
Giant Center Hershey, Pennsylvania
Mar 23 2009 8:00P
Columbus Civic Center Columbus
Mar 26 2009 8:00P
Freedom Hall Civic Center Johnson City, Tennessee
Mar 27 2009 8:00P
Rupp Arena Lexington, Kentucky
Mar 28 2009 8:00P
Asheville Civic Center Asheville, North Carolina
Mar 30 2009 8:00P
Sommet Center Nashville, Tennessee
Apr 3 2009 8:00P
Heartland Event Center Grand Island
Apr 4 2009 8:00P
Topeka Event Center Topeka, Kansas
Apr 7 2009 8:00P
Belton County Expo Center Belton, Texas
Apr 9 2009 8:00P
Amarillo Civic Center Amarillo, Texas
Apr 10 2009 8:00P
Lone Star Ampitheater Lubbock, Texas
Apr 11 2009 8:00P
Pan America Center Las Cruces, New Mexico
Apr 13 2009 8:00P
Colorado Springs World Arena Colorado Springs, Colorado
Apr 16 2009 8:00P
Nokia Theater LA Live Los Angeles, California
Apr 17 2009 8:00P
San Diego Sports Arena San Diego, California
May 2 2009 8:00P
UBC Thunderbird Arena Vancouver, British Columbia
May 3 2009 8:00P
CN Centre Prince George, British Columbia
May 5 2009 8:00P
Shaw Conference Centre Edmonton, Alberta
May 7 2009 8:00P
Stampede Corral Calgary, Alberta
May 8 2009 8:00P
Medicine Hat Arena Medicine Hat, Alberta
May 9 2009 8:00P
Brandt Centre – Evraz Place Regina, Saskatchewan
May 16 2009 8:00P
Preakness Baltimore, Maryland
May 17 2009 8:00P
Rock on The Range Columbus, Ohio